Have you ever noticed how bald men’s scalps often look shiny? How the skin appears harder and more tight compared to skin elsewhere on the body? It’s not a coincidence. In fact, these characteristics provide valuable insights into the causes of pattern hair loss. Most importantly, though, they could provide the key to reversing androgenetic alopecia and regrowing a full head of hair.

The current explanation of pattern hair loss

Dihydrotestosterone (DHT)

If you ask your doctor about pattern hair loss, chances are he’ll tell you that a hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT) binds to hair follicles, causing them to shrink and eventually stop producing hair.

This explanation is based on various observations made in the 20th century. For example:

And finally, the difference that we’ll focus on in this article is that bald scalps have significantly increased collagen bundles compared to controls. This observation goes a long way to explaining the problems with the DHT hypothesis explained above, and may well provide the key to actually reversing pattern hair loss.

Fibrosis

Collagen is the main structural protein of the body’s skin and connective tissue. Your body produces collagen to heal cuts, grazes, etc. but sometimes too much collagen is produced, leaving scar tissue.

An excess of collagen, such as is produced when a cut is particularly deep, is called fibrosis.

Fibrosis doesn’t just occur in response to injury though. It can occur in any tissue of the body, such as the lungs, the liver, or the heart (more on this later).

Scleroderma is an autoimmune disorder that leads to fibrosis of the skin. This excess collagen produces hard, tight skin that can often look shiny – not massively dissimilar to the appearance of the scalp in advanced (Norwood 7) pattern hair loss (thanks to Rob from Perfect Hair Health for pointing out the similarities between these two conditions).

Hair loss and fibrosis

So, are the visual similarities between scleroderma (fibrosis) and pattern hair loss just coincidental?

This study suggests not. Collagen levels in bald scalps were measured and compared to control (non-bald) scalps. The result:

“It was found that collagen bundles were significantly increased in balding vertexes than in non-balding occiput scalp skin. A near 4-fold increase in elastic fibers was observed in both vertex and occiput scalp skins with MPHL versus controls.”

So, collagen levels – i.e. fibrosis – are almost four times greater in bald men compared to non-bald men. Similar observations have been made in other studies1,2.

This raises the question of whether this fibrosis causes hair loss, or whether it is merely correlated with it.

Hair loss as a result of fibrosis

Unfortunately, there are no studies that have specifically addressed this question. However, findings from related studies suggest the link between hair loss and fibrosis is causal, not merely correlative.

This study describes a rare case of scleroderma (fibrosis) of the scalp. The subject, a female, experienced hair loss precisely in the area of fibrosis, but not anywhere else on the scalp.

This strongly suggests that fibrosis causes hair loss.

Furthermore, the fact that the subject was female significantly reduces the likelihood of DHT being to blame.

So where does DHT come into the picture?

At present, we have two competing explanations of pattern hair loss: fibrosis and DHT.

The current medical consensus is that DHT binds to hair follicles, causing them to shrink and stop producing hair. In other words, that DHT causes hair loss. This is what most doctors will tell you.

But this causal relationship between DHT and hair loss has never been properly established. And there are a number of problems with this explanation, as we saw earlier.

Given that fibrosis is elevated in pattern hair loss, and fibrosis causes hair loss even in the absence of DHT, it seems more reasonable to argue that fibrosis is what causes hair loss, not DHT.

So where does DHT fit in this picture? After all, drugs that reduce DHT have been demonstrated to be effective at slowing down pattern hair loss – it must have some effect on hair loss.

And it does. But it seems more likely that DHT is in some way linked to fibrosis, which in turn causes hair loss.

Whatever the relationship between DHT, fibrosis, and hair loss, the links between them shouldn’t be ignored. And given the common link to heart disease, the issue is likely to be more than simply cosmetic.

Research the hair loss industry chooses to ignore

Despite what pharmaceutical companies may say, there is more to hair loss than hormones. But since they can't make money from the truth, there's no point advertising it! Find out the complete picture and start recovering your hair today.

Thanks! I started dermarolling with a 1 mm 192 needle roller about a month ago. Started massaging my scalp 20 minutes 2x a day. And now im getting on quercetin as well (for prostatitis and hopefully itll help my hair too).
I really love your website! Your articles are extremely informative in a place where misinformation is so common and people are always quick to dismiss anything that isnt Fin or Minox. (Ive also been on rogaine foam for 16 months now – i had some initial regrowth and perhaps some maintenance by overall my hair is getting worse over time)

Mechanical therapies (massage, derma roller, etc.) are in my view the best way to actually regrow lost hair. They can be time consuming, though, which I think is why they are not as popular or well known – people give up before giving them a proper go! Also, anything you can do to tackle the internal factors – reducing DHT and inflammation, for example – will help maintain your existing hair.

After exhaustive research, I could not really find any concrete information regarding Detumesence Therapy (aka Scalp Massage), such as how it is performed and if it actually does anything. About Dermarolling, it seems every website, article, post, etc, seem to have widely varying information on things like proper need length, correct way to roll, or how long to wait between sessions.

The only place I could find that promotes these things is that Rob guy from PerfectHairHealth (of course, claiming that his book/video isn’t “snake oil”, but again charging quite a bit for it). JDMoyer falls into the same category – looks suspiciously like a friend of Rob trying to promote sales of his book.

In the end, I haven’t been able to find a single reputable video or article on step by step DT Massage technique or Dermarolling technique that doesn’t want you to buy something first.

“According to the Gravity Theory Of Baldness, DHT will only encourage hair loss if there is constant downward force at that skin site (aka: gravity).

So, the top of men’s heads is under constant gravitational force. But their beards and body hair aren’t under the same force, because they’re angled differently.

And that’s why men don’t go bald at the sides of the scalp or on their bodies or faces. Gravity’s force isn’t directly downward there, so the subcutaneous fat layer doesn’t erode in the presence of androgens like it does at the top of the scalp.”

My hairline is not receding, it is still the same as 2 decades ago but hair is getting scarce on the top and crown of my my head. There is no M-shape balding pattern, neither complete bald patches, just fewer hair with linear density on top and crown. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.